The End Is Here: Farewell CGM

The word is slowly creeping through the Internet, but it is now official, I guess. Computer Games Magazine and MMO Games are no more, killed by TheGlobe.com. It was a sudden death, but don’t believe people who say those are the easy ones.

The story here IS NOT the failure of print. It IS NOT the failure of a PC only magazine. It IS NOT advertisers fleeing for a better model. It IS NOT new media winning over old. It IS NOT because the magazine was run poorly.

It IS the unfortunate consequence of being owned by a corporation that hasn’t really had its head screwed on straight for a while.

I have nothing to add to this news at the moment, except that my prayers will include all those whose livelihoods depended on those two magazines, and especially Editor For Life, Steve Bauman, who gave me a break reviewing strategy games and for some reason kept sending me stuff. He has no idea how much I am in his debt.

Now, publishing is a funny business and Steve knows how to put together a magazine on a budget. So his skills should be in demand. His writing is underappreciated. And he really loves what he does.

As for me, it looks like I need to get my free games from someone else.

I certainly never expected the mag to end this way. I figured The Globe would just pull the plug one day, but I also thought they’d at least try to sell it first.

The mag has built up a dedicated following, so it seems crazy for it to just… um… end like this.

Anyway, I’m just as indebted to Steve as he gave me my first chance too way back in 2000. If things had been different in my life then, I might also be living in Vermont as it was originally a full-time position and not the freelance work that I’ve done since then. Computer Games Strategy Plus/Computer Games Magazine has been a part of my every day life for the last seven years. This is just a miserable day.

While it’s been years since I subscribed to any gaming magazines, I still liked the idea that they were around and I’d buy every couple months. Maybe it’s my fondness for old-style “dead tree” publishing or that I liked knowing there were alternatives ways of getting info. I’ve never felt comfortable with all that triumphal “the internet is king” crowing, and seeing an actual magazine devoted to my hobby was cool.

Holy Schnikes! I never imagined it would end like this. I’ve had a CGM subscription continuously for over 12 years now, and also had subscribed to Massive as well and was quite enjoying that too. IMO, these were the only gaming magazines worth reading — directed to the adults who play.

I didn’t know Steve too well, only through some exchanges of dialogue about a few “Speak Out” submissions I contributed to CGM–the most recent, ironically, appearing in the April issue.

I mention the recent Speak Out article because it highlighted how most other publications (and the industry, in general) have sunk to appealing to lowest common denominators. CGM’s approach to games journalism, on the other hand, was intelligent, and truly appreciated by many.

I sincerely hope Steve Bauman & company surface elsewhere in the industry.

CGM was hands-down my favorite of the PC Gaming magazines, as the only one that felt like it was aimed at adults, and included women in their target market. While I read the others, CGM was the one I savored, and I shall truly miss it. :(

The point about women is a good one, Loredena. All three of the computer magazines have major strengths, but the prominence of female voices in CGM certainly set it apart. From Cindy Vanous in the past and Cindy Yan’s long tenure to Tiffany Martin’s review of cute games and Lara Crigger’s regular stories on gaming and society, CGS+/CGM has probably printed more bylines by women than the other major gaming mags combined. Whether this, in fact, meant that female perspectives were there is debatable (are all gamers the same? Yes? No? Sometimes?) but it was one of the major draws for my household. We subscribed and/or regularly bought long before I wrote for it.

ABHarris: Loved your SpeakOut column in the final (*sniff*) issue. I’m actually working on a reply/commentary to it.

It wasn’t just that the voice of the ‘woman gamer’ was represented and that they wrote about games that might appeal more to women, but also simply that they acknowledged that hey, we exist, and aren’t even a tiny minority. Furthermore, their writing doesn’t ‘feel’ aimed at the under 25 male, as the others do, to me at least. That was a large draw to me, and I really appreciated the abundance of articles and columns — sure, previews/reviews are nice, but they aren’t in short supply, it was the thoughful reporting on other aspects of gaming that really drew me in long term.

Seeing CGM go is truly a sad day for anyone who appreciates insightful writing and commentary on computer/video games. While I’m not trying to bash PC Gamer or Games for Windows (both of which have their moments), they’re both pretty clearly trying hard to be “edgy” and aimed at the 24 and under crowd. As I aged out of that category a decade or so ago, I find the low brow humor and regularly painful to look at layouts just a distraction.

With any luck, CGM will manage to be reborn in a new form with Steve still doing the one-man show thing (since, honestly, I”m just astounded that one person can do everything Steve does in running a magazine *and* find time to be cranky online!)

The truth is the magazine or magazines have never been in better standing the globe jusy fucked up… Advertising was up, along with subscribers and a new print mag called Massive. Too bad things had to end this way

Wow! I really feel for all the people affected by this tragedy. I agree this is the only magazine that had a mature point of view on computer games. I’m sorry to all the Console lovers out there but console has about as much flavor as week old bubble gum. Computers are the original platform for video games and the only one I enjoy. All the games work on your PC, you don’t need expensive marketing centric add-ons and all the ways the console pirates screw you. I will never buy a console because next year they will have anohter at 10 times the price. Really, what am I ranting about? Well, the death of an era, a magazine that knew it’s readers and cared. I only discovered it back when the cover featured the sequal to Sid Meier’s Pirates! I was blown away by the quality of this magazine, and it was talking about my favorite platfomr and my favorite game designer of all time. This whole thing blind sided my I waited and waited for my may issue only to be dissappointed. It’s sad that such a great resource is now gone, but I believe in Steve! Move to Canada Steve and open a new Pc gaming Magazine with all the Flavor of CGM but without the stupid spamming corporation that killed your master piece! Come to Canada we promise not to sue you, were too passive! Bring back the only bastion of mature intellectual Pc gaming in existance, because I refuse to read Pc Gamer!@ Oh and I’ll miss my remaining 4 issues that I’ll never see *sigh* someone could have atleast mailed me a card saying “Sorry but your subscription funds have been allocated to pay for our idiotic blunder here at The Globe” Shazbot!

Thanks for the kind words, Matt. “Tragedy” is a little hyperbolic, though I’ll admit to being seriously bummed out for a week or two afterwards.

Steve is fine, and frankly he deserved the break. We freelancers scattered to the four winds and scrambled for bits here and there. I doubt I’ll ever again write for as generous an editor as Herr Bauman. I don’t think Canada is in his future.

Ok, maybe I overstated the seriousness a little. Although losing a job is a life altering event. I’m just seriously disappointed. As much so as I was when the Dreamcast folded and Sega as a console disappeared (The only console systems I ever loved!). I’ll survive, I guess. Why not Canada? we have a Strong dollar, thriving game developers, and more beer and beautiful women then we can handle, all we need is a good Pc game magazine and the world is ours! LoL, but seriously, I miss you CGM!

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